"The Mario Bros certainly do have the Midas touch in this underrated platformer!"

In 2006, Mario had to rescue Princess Peach from the evil clutches of King Bowser and his son Bowser Jr! In 2009, Mario had to rescue Princess Peach from the evil clutches of King Bowser, Bowser Jr and the Koopalings! With help from his trusty brother Luigi, and 2 Toads! Now! Mario must rescue Princess Peach from the evil clutches of King Bowser and the Koopalings! (That's right, no Bowser Jr. Sorry Bowser Jr. fans.) Now here's the twist! Mario has stepped into a golden patch of the Mushroom Kingdom. Now while trying to save Peach, he should grab a truck load of coins in the process! That's right, NSMB2 is a money-making platformer! Here's my NSMB2 review.

Story: Well; I've already written about the story, but I'll rewrite it in greater detail. Mario and Luigi depart from Peach's castle with their Raccoon/Fox powerups. As they fly away, they try to collect lots of coins floating in the sky. When their power of flight (lol Kid Icarus ref) goes away, they safely land to a flat land. Suddenly, the Koopalings come crashing down at Mario and Luigi. *Gasp* they have stolen the helpless Princess! (Come on! She can defend herself! Super Princess Peach, remember???) Mario and Luigi must rescue the Princess, again! Not much originality in the story, but it's classic. 9/10

Gameplay: New Super Mario Bros 2 plays identically to its predecessors. (More so the first one.) Go through a level and you can proceed to the next level. Towers are the midpoint each world, and the Castle will end each world. When you play a level, you'll notice that this game does not want you to ever get a game over. It's virtually impossible! Why? Well it's because this game will flood your trousers with coins. Ohh the coin collecting sound will be in my brain for decades! All these delicious coins are quite fun to collect, but I want more! Say no more, because the levels will also give you golden coin blocks. Yes, hitting the multi-coin blocks at least 10 times will reward you a golden coin block. Put it on, and the block will be flooding your coin count with coins. (Only if you run, slide, bounce on music blocks, and ride on platforms.) But wait! There's more! There's a new power up in this game that will give you even more money! The Golden Flower. This flower will give Golden Mario/Platinum Luigi to turn obstacles into coins with just a fireball flick. Any enemy that touches the fireball or its crash wave, will reward the player 5 coins. Right now, you'll be choking on coins. I know, you're probably thinking, Wow! So many coins! I can get 1 million coins before getting to World 2! But that's a negative. It takes a lot longer than you would have imagined. As we speak, Nintendo is making new levels to make our coin hunting experience juicier. (Thank you Nintendo.) Now, there is one little gripe I have with this game, and it's the secret exits. I'm a sucker for good secret exits, but I don't like the fact that 90 PERCENT OF THE SECRET EXITS IN THIS GAME CONSISTS OF HITTING HIDDEN BLOCKS! You would lose your mind trying to find the exits in this game. Suddenly you jump; then BAM, a hidden block! Then you'll ask yourself, How would anybody know about that? To put it simply, the secret exits are too inconspicuous. Generally, New Super Mario Bros 2 is a solid platformer, (and still quite challenging, for offering so many lives!) with fun levels and nostalgic elements. 9.5/10

Graphics: Most of the graphics were taken from New Super Mario Bros Wii, but there are still some unique looking levels. A tear streamed down my cheek when I saw the background for World 4-3. (Go ahead, check it out!) Some of the sky levels really satisfied me. One looked like Sonic and Knuckles' Sky Sanctuary zone to me. The NSMB series always had good graphics, so there was no let down here. 10/10

Music/Sound: Almost all the songs are vocal arrangements of New Super Mario Bros Wii's music, with a few unique tracks. (I think 3?) When I say vocal, I mean that they put the Lahs on almost every beat. (Especially the athletic theme.) I found it quite funny, but in an endearing way. As for sounds, they are taken from its predecessors. Not much else to say there. 10/10

Replay value: New Super Mario Bros 2 offers a good amount of replay value. You have 3 star coins to collect in every stage! Hop to it! Find those secret exits! You can look in the cheat sites! No one would blame you! (Definitely not me.) Finally, collect 1 million coins! I would recommend NSMB2's coin rush to make quick smackers. If that gets boring, then my other suggestion is to play the 2 player co-op with someone. So yeah, there's a lot to do in this game. The replayablitiy is not a pain like some other games. 9/10

Pros+ COINS COINS COINS!!!!+ Like most Mario games, it appeals to speed runners and coin collectors.+ Coin Rush mode.+ Even though lives are given to you every minute, it's still a challenging game.+ World 4-3's background (Yes, I really love Super Mario World.)+ The Golden Flower.

Cons- Hidden blocks are needed to find most hidden exits.- Not having a choice to make a 3 level set in Coin rush. (I want to avoid water levels.)

Well, after playing New Super Mario Bros 2, I'll be eating, drinking, dreaming, watching, burping, and sweating coins. The coin quantity is over 9- *shot*. But it still offers a good challenge. Bravo Nintendo!